Although adolescents have sex, suffer the effects of domestic violence and fall victim to sexual harassment, existing laws often prevent them from gaining access to the social services available to adults. Further, laws that deny adolescents access to social services exist side-by-side with laws that readily allow adolescent offenders to be moved from the juvenile system into adult court. In effect, the law treats adolescents either as children or as adults, failing to acknowledge that they are neither.;In this book, law professor and attorney Roger J.R. Levesque illuminates the shortcomings of the juvenile justice system and proposes a strategy for reframing the current social and legal conceptions of adolescence. Levesque weaves an intricate tapestry of social, psychological and legal analysis as he argues for reforms that will make adolescents responsible citizens by accurately reflecting the realities of adolescent life. This examination of adolescence is useful reading for anyone who works with teenagers, from mental health professionals and public policy specialists to attorneys.

Contents:

The Invention and Reinvention of Adolescence; Adolescence and the Law; Regulating the Transition to Adolescent Sexuality; Regulating Sexually Active Adolescents; Sex and Schools; Sex and the Media; Sexual Victimization by Adults; Sexual Victimization by Adolescents; Sexual Offending; Childbearing and Parenthood; Reforming Adolescents' Rights.